


Journey's End

by asparagusmama



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Episode Fix-it, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26791702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asparagusmama/pseuds/asparagusmama
Summary: Adric's is offered a whole new way of exploring, just as he thinks all is ending.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Journey's End

Adric clutched at Varsh’s rope belt and stared ahead at the screen as the Earth grew closer by the second. At least it would not hurt, it would be sudden, after this waiting, which felt agonising and eternal.

“Adric,” said a gentle male voice.

Adric spun around, alarmed. It was not the Doctor, although why the Doctor could not have materialised on the crashing ship and rescued him he was not sure, surely going back in time a mere ten minutes or so to stop what he presumably saw on the scanner was only bending the laws of time and space a small bit, surely?

Adric stopped his thoughts, he did not want to die blaming anyone but himself, the Doctor had told him to leave, it was only his arrogance which left him here, trying to prevent the crash.

“Adric,” said the voice again. A male appearing humanoid, not human, his face was arranged a little differently, especially his nose, and he was almost grey, as were his clothes.

“Who are you?”

“You can stop this, you can count the numbers, if you only open your mind…”

Adric paused for a beat, then turned and looked at the much larger Earth on the screen. “Block transfer!” he yelled, and began to make calculations, aloud, muttering the numbers, as he had nothing to write on.

Somehow, through his block transfer calculations, he stopped time. The ship, the impending crash, all frozen.

The man stepped forward, and another, younger, human man, or youth perhaps, appeared to his right, slightly behind him.

“Well done, but you cannot pause the universe indefinitely.”

“It gives me time. Time to think! Even if I cannot save myself, I can save the Earth.”

“You are already hurtling backwards in time; the Earth of humanity is safe.”

“But…?”

“You are travelling back to a time meant to be. 66 million years back in time. This ship will crash into what one day will known as Mexico. It will vaporise, wiping out all life within a 4000 miles radius, and beyond that the radiation will spread, killing more life. The dust cloud will block out the sun causing a nuclear winter. The large reptiles will become extinct, and the small mammals and smaller proto birds will survive, and go on to populate and evolve, the mammals leading ultimately to homo sapiens. A new species line will be introduced, with DNA from another universe: spiders will begin on Earth.”

Adric pointed to himself.

“I have been watching you, Adric,” the greyish odd-looking man said even more gently. “Your capacities, your mathematical skills, your survival and your experiences with the Doctor and the Master have created in you something… new. We would have contacted you soon anyway, and asked you to travel with us, exploring levels of reality beyond the imagination of a mere… Time Lord.”

“Who are you?”

“I am called the Traveler. My young friend here is called Wesley.”

Wesley smiled. Adric couldn’t help smiling back. “We had to come for you, rather than meet you in a more safe and regular way, to test you and invite you. Like the Traveler did for me,” Wesley said. “Because we did not predict this act of blind heroism in you.”

“The Cybership would have wiped out all life on Earth!” Adric wailed. “I thought I could stop it, but every control is locked!”

“Perhaps, given time, you would perform the right calculations, but you cannot freeze time forever.” As the Traveler said this, time began again, and the ship continued its deadly plunge to Chicxulub and the demise of the age of the dinosaurs.

“Would you like to travel with us, exploring all kinds of realities?” asked the Traveler.

“Better make up your mind fast!” Wesley added, sounding nervous.

Adric went through all the Traveler had said. “You said my Alzarian DNA would create Terran spiders. That would be a big change to the timeline.”

“A good answer,” said the Traveler softly. “But…”

“You’ve shed DNA everywhere,” Wesley finished. “Especially on that rope belt, there must be lots of DNA there.”

Adric clutched his brother’s belt tighter. 

“Varsh will always be with you, in your heart, your mind, and in your memories,” the Traveler said.

Adric suddenly saw his brother standing in the control cabin doorway. He smiled and slowly faded. Swallowing a sob, a tear slowly rolling down his cheek, Adric kissed the belt and lay it down.

“I am ready,” he said.

The Traveler, Wesley Crusher, and Adric, faded from the Cybership, from the very universe that Cybermen emerged from Mondas, to travel who knew where or when.


End file.
